Challenge to MCA, Gerakan, MIC
leaders to declare whether they fully support the latest persecution of
Anwar and the gross abuse of the legal process to further the petty
interests of Umno leaders

Two days ago, the MCA secretary-general Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan
said that instead of development and prosperity, the key issue during
the Permatang Pauh by-election would be Anwar Ibrahim’s Sodomy II
charge.

He said: "Permatang Pauh will be a battle of public confidence. The
winner will be the side that most convincingly explains the situation
surrounding Anwar's charge.

"If the opposition succeeds in painting a picture that Anwar is a victim
of some government conspiracy, then they win. But if the Barisan
Nasional can convincingly explain to the grassroots that what's
happening to Anwar is just a criminal justice process, then we win.”

Ka Chuan should not be so fast to jump the gun. Before MCA
leaders, Ministers, Deputy Ministers and MPs go down to the hustings in
Permatang Pauh to woo the support of the 14,846 Chinese voters
(comprising 24.8% of the 58,459 voters), they should publicly declare
whether they fully support the latest persecution of Anwar and the gross
abuse of the legal process to further the petty interests of Umno
leaders.

After the March 8 “political tsunami”, MCA leaders have been
declaring that they have learnt the lesson and would no more be “dumb
puppets” of UMNO whether in the Cabinet or the Barisan Nasional Supreme
Council.

The first question MCA leaders, Ministers, Deputy Ministers and
MPs must answer before they start their campaign in Permatang Pauh is
whether they have kept their post-March 8 pledge to speak up for justice
and fair play in the Cabinet and the Barisan Nasional Supreme Council,
or whether they are no different from the MCA of pre-March 8 “political
tsunami” in being mere subservient puppets of Umno “Big Brother”!

The same political challenge applies to the Gerakan and MIC
leaders, Ministers, Deputy Ministers and MPs – have they spoken up in
Barisan Nasional government and Supreme Council against the Sodomy II
persecution of Anwar or are they in full support of the obsession of the
top Umno leadership with one person regardless of the national trauma
and international infamy it is creating?